Republicans on Capitol Hill woke up on Thursday prepared to do something they have done little of in recent years: push back against President Trump.
In the House, many Republicans were expected this afternoon to vote to override Mr. Trump’s first two vetoes of his second term. The legislation in question — one to authorize a pipeline project that would provide clean drinking water to Colorado’s eastern plains, the other to give a Native American tribe some control over a piece of the Everglades — was so uncontroversial that the bills, both sponsored by Republicans, passed unanimously in both the House and the Senate.
That action was to unfold on the same day that the Senate was voting on whether to consider legislation to rein in Mr. Trump’s power to continue using military force in Venezuela. The House on Thursday was also expected to pass a bill that the president and top Republicans oppose to extend Affordable Care Act subsidies that expired at the end of last year.
Neither of those measures were expected to become law; Republicans are likely to block the war powers resolution in the Senate, and that chamber has already defeated the health care subsidy extension.
But both votes, plus expected passage of a spending package that rejects deep funding cuts requested by the president, were to showcase rare moments of dissonance between Mr. Trump and Republicans.
The vetoes being challenged appeared to be aimed at exacting retribution against people who have crossed Mr. Trump in some way.
The pipeline project directly affects the district of Representative Lauren Boebert, the hard-right Colorado Republican who defied the president’s pressure and signed onto a discharge petition to force a vote on the release of the Epstein files.
Mr. Trump’s veto of the bill days after Christmas took Ms. Boebert by surprise. She had assumed she would be at the White House to attend a signing ceremony, not taking a stance in opposition to a president she has long supported. Ms. Boebert had gone out of her way to smooth over any rift after breaking with the White House on the Epstein issue. But after the veto, she pushed back hard on Mr. Trump.
“Nothing says ‘America First’ like denying clean drinking water to 50,000 people in southeast Colorado, many of whom voted for him in all three elections,” Ms. Boebert said in a statement. “I must have missed the rally where he stood in Colorado and promised to personally derail critical water infrastructure projects.”
Ms. Boebert and Representative Jeff Hurd, Republican of Colorado, have been quietly working their colleagues to vote to override Mr. Trump’s veto.
Several Republicans, mostly politically vulnerable members in competitive districts, were expected to break with their leaders and Mr. Trump in support of the health care measure. The House bill made its way to the floor against the wishes of House Speaker Mike Johnson via a discharge petition.
Its passage would be a rebuke to the president, who opposed making any deal with Democrats on extending the subsidies in order to end the government shutdown last year.
Across the Capitol, the Senate was set on Thursday to vote on a resolution that would block Mr. Trump from taking any further military action against Venezuela without first seeking congressional approval.
The measure appeared unlikely to have enough votes to pass with most Republicans opposed, but it will offer an opportunity for some G.O.P. senators to register their concerns with the administration’s dramatic military action that it took while keeping Congress in the dark.
Senator James Risch, Republican of Idaho and chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, said Thursday that the only effect of the war powers resolution would be to “slap the president in the face.”
Catie Edmondson contributed reporting.
Annie Karni is a congressional correspondent for The Times.
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